Vale Mea Rose
by Nienna14
Summary: Beauty and the Beast AU where Belle doesn't come back. One day the Doctor decides to take his companion on a trip to a castle. Set after Doomsday, OC companion.


I wasn't expecting it. The look in his eyes. He'd been so happy earlier, declaring it was time he took me to a _real_ castle. Glittering walls, shining chandeliers, the air had almost shimmered with the picture he painted in it.

But all we'd seen so far were empty halls, greying carpets and slowly dying paintings. Grime that covered everything in a muted layer of neglect as it slowly crumbled away. Tarnished candlesticks that lay on greying cloth. "A thousand years of time and space and you still can't fly your own spaceship," I'd laughed, as we stepped out of the Tardis into frigid darkness, rather than the sunlit courtyard that had been promised. The Doctor scowled over at me in the dim light, stroking the corner of his precious blue box like I might have hurt its feelings.

"She's not just a spaceship! She's a Time And Relati-"

"Oh shush, we both know what it's called," I grinned as I cut him off before he could finish, "heaven knows you've mentioned it enough times. The point being that it can travel through space, and, _apparently_ be directed to specific places using those controls that you hit randomly. It's a spaceship mate." I swept my fingers through his spiked hair, skipping out of reach as he swatted his hand past me. "Anyway," I piped up again while he tried to fix his hair, "are we going to explore this castle or not?"

His eyes flashed for a second, a familiar glint appearing through the disgruntled expression he was still attempting to hold.

"Right. Yes. Torches!" he excitedly exclaimed as he took a step back and pulled two wooden torches from inside the door. Within seconds warm firelight rippled across the room, tentatively poking its way into the darkness. "Choose," he whispered in my ear, nudging me towards the now visible arches spread around us. I grinned, selecting a wide passage that looked slightly more used than the others. We followed the stone corridors leading upwards in chilling spirals, steps beating out an empty song and breathing the dust as it billowed in hollow clouds. Great wooden doors stood against the walls, scars dug into the panels, stories held in their tears. But no one remained to read them. Each dark room flickered in the torchlight, showing fallen furniture twisted into nearly unrecognisable shapes.

The darkness pulling at me, I hopped across the flagstones, humming a tune from our last trip that had been in my head for days. As per usual. Why did the thirteenth century need to have such catchy music?

An icy draught swept past us, seeming to appear from an empty corner. I stepped in closer to his body warmth and held my torch a little higher, the smoothly carved wood warm against my palm. As the walls drew closer the light spread across them, showing a shredded tapestry blackened by time, torn pieces beating slowly in the air coming from behind it. Another bitter spit of air whipped my hair back, so I threw a glance over at the Doctor. The small smirk playing across his face mirrored my own as together we stepped into the not-so-secret-anymore secret passageway.

 _Well it may not be the shining castle you were promised,_ I thought, _but there's already more excitement than meeting royalty._ I hid a fond smile. One more reason why the Doctor was such a wonder to travel next to. He could find an unexpected adventure whatever time or place he found himself in.

A loose pebble shifted beneath my shoe, snapping my attention away from the back of his head. I skipped in front of him, chirping as I passed. He chuckled, chirping back. The torches' firelight danced across the flagstones as we skipped across them, cheerfully relaxed in the emptiness. Yes, the adventures were amazing, but sometimes it was nice to have some peace. To just hang out somewhere normal.

Because a secret passage in the frozen ruins of a castle is normal.

A cavern. No, a hall. That's what the passage led to. It could have been majestic once, with carvings and statues in every corner. But a freezing wind blew snow in through an open balcony and ice crawled up the walls. The entire room cried of neglect, with one exception. The centrepiece, a polished stone pedestal, stood clear of the white drifts that spread around it. And as I moved closer I realised what it held. Somehow fixed in place amongst a ring of shattered glass, blackened petals surrounded a silver-thorned rose stalk. Like it was lying in a pile of ashes.

But when his gaze fell on those scattered petals, he changed. All the years he had seen seemed to crawl through his countenance. Usually he'd brush aside anything that hinted to his own past, hiding behind his centuries old walls, and merely insist that the future was more important. But now the memories, and the pain, weighed down on his head. I placed a hand on his shoulder, half expecting him to spin around with his usual grin and his singsong voice, but he didn't. He just placed his own over mine. Rubbing his thumb absently along the fine scars, not moving, just staring at some figure only he could see. "Doctor." Silence. I tried again. "What happened?"

"The wrong thing," he murmured. Another beat of silence. "I thought...I hoped we'd just overshot again, to after everyone was gone. But...no." He trailed off, leaving the words hanging in the air. The silence began working the pieces together. Nothing was gone, yet there were torn tapestries, scarred walls and the furnishings littered the floor. Empty chairs fallen by the empty tables, with no sign as to the people who should be sitting there. No one would choose to leave a place like this, still filled with a potential life. Another force had been here, but not for self gain. No. Justice, vengeance, whatever it had been had come and gone, taking nothing and leaving nothing but a rose.

But the Doctor's connection looked different. It was the fallen rose that held his gaze, not the broken castle. And in that instant something fell into place.

"You lost someone, didn't you," it wasn't a question. The movement on my knuckles froze, just for an instant, before resuming its steady rhythm. After a few seconds he released a soft breath, like it had slipped out from behind his shields.

"Yes."

"Who?"

"We should go," he turned and paced back to the door. I slipped through it ahead of him, but a moment before he closed it behind us, I heard him whisper into the empty room.

"Vale, mea Rose."


End file.
